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The Two Live Crew Job
When Nate and his crew try to recover a piece of Holocaust artwork, they must by square off against a band of thieves (Marcus Starke, Colin "Chaos" Mason, Mikel Dayan and Apollo). Complicating matters: Sophie must fake her own death when one of the new crew in town sends her a bouquet of flowers hiding a bomb. The Clients Ezra and Olivia Mercer, who are the children of a Holocaust victim, attempting to recover a painting by Klimt that was stolen from their family during World War II. The Mercers have tracked the painting for a lengthy period of time, before attempting to recover it. Now in the possession of a wealthy Boston businessman, their attempts to assert ownership of the painting have failed as the businessman is able to use money and influence to retain ownership. The Marks Initially, the businessman in possession of the Mercers' painting. When the painting us is stolen by a crew headed by Marcus Starke, who also plans to steal a Van Gogh painting from a Boston auction house, they become the team's marks. The Con *The Mona Lisa Con, although Sophie refers to it as the "Mona Lisa Variant". Aliases * Nathan Ford - Detective Marlowe * Sophie Devereaux - Detective Archer/Katherine Clive * Marcus Starke - Nathan Ford * Parker - Officer Williams (Massachusetts State Police) * Alec Hardison - Officer Pierce (Massachusetts State Police) Artwork Featured in the Episode The episode features two paintings, one by Gustav Klimt and the other by Vincent Van Gogh. In the story, the Klimt is a piece of Holocaust art, a painting stolen from a wealthy Jewish family during World War II. "Hygeia" (Gustav Klimt) Gustav Klimt, an Austrian painter active in the late 19th and early 20th century, was known for his paintings of women in the style of the symbolists. Klimt was a founder of the Vienna Secession, a loose confederation of young Viennese artists, who painted in a variety of styles. By 1900, Klimt's work largely featured women, often portrayed as mythological or allegorical figures in the manner of the day's Art Deco movement. Klimt favored a mixed media approach for many of his works, blending oil paint and gold leaf, giving the appearance of mosaic to his paintings. The painting featured in the episode is actually a section of one of three works commissioned as ceiling paintings for the Great Hall of the University of Vienna. Known as the Faculty Paintings, each painting featured a traditional academic discipline: Philosophy, Medicine and Jurisprudence. Hygeia, the personification of health, appears on the lower portion of the painting Medicine, the second of the three paintings presented to the university. Upon presentation to the university, the paintings met with overwhelmingly negative response, with some critics calling them pornographic because of their portrayals of nude women. The paintings were never displayed and eventually fell into Nazi hands. Taken to Schloss Immendorf in Austria, they were eventually destroyed by German SS troops to keep them from falling into Allied hands. "Café on a Moonlit Terrace" (Vincent Van Gogh) Café on a Moonlit Terrace is one of Van Gogh's best known works. Painted in Arles, France in 1888, it features a small cafe on Arles' Place du Forum, which can still be visited today. This is the first of a group of paintings to feature starry night skies, the best known of which was his iconic "Starry Night", painted a year later. The painting currently hangs at the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, Netherlands. In a letter to his sister, Van Gogh described the setting: Episode Notes * This episode was originally intended to be the summer-season closer. However, TNT moved The Ice Man Job and The Lost Heir Job to summer because of the popularity of Leverage, and The Lost Heir Job became the summer finale instead. * Apollo Robbins, who plays Apollo, is the show's expert on cons and slight-of-hand. Robbins is a professional security consultant, speaker and self-described "gentleman thief." * When Eliot and Mikel Dayan encounter one another for the first time in the gallery, the episode uses traditional imagery, photography and sound effects from Hong Kong-style martial arts films to show them fighting. * When Hardison and Chaos encounter each other in the parking lot, the episode uses traditional imagery, photography and sound effects from Spaghetti-western-style films to show them dueling. * If you are a good listener, you can find a little Easter egg. As the guards are watching the basketball game before the heist, listen to what the TV says. It says "and that's a steal by Parker..." *This is the last episode where Sophie Devereaux plays an active role in the con prior to Gina Bellman's maternity leave. *This was the first episode where a mark does not appear on screen. The mark was a "Mr. North", and his only appearance was a photo in a magazine article. *Elle Poindexter, who plays the receptionist at Montcraft and Associates, is Timothy Hutton's assistant on the show. * The headstone on Sophie's grave originally read "Katherine Clive". She had it changed to "Sophie Devereaux" when she decided to leave the group to find who she really is. Trivia * Nate and Sophie use the aliases Detective Marlowe and Archer, an homage to fictional literary detectives Phillip Marlowe and Lew Archer. * Eliot wears a hat early in the episode to cover an injury to Christian Kane's forehead sustained while filming an earlier episode. During his fight with Mikel Dayan, Eliot is seen to injure his forehead, explaining Kane's very visible injury. * Hardison mentions that Colin "Chaos" Mason (played by Wil Wheaton who was a regular cast member in ''Star Trek: The Next Generation) is referred to, in the CIA, as the Kobayashi Maru, referring to Star Trek's legendary unsolvable problem. * Sophie points out that while Nate is the closest thing she has to a friend, he does not even know her real name. References Category:Episodes Category:Season 2